"The Great" looked like a massive skeletal humanoid Head with red, bright lights in its eyes.
This was its true from.
However, its true form was rarely seen, as it always exerted its influence from within its cave world.
One could say it was quite shy.
But at this moment, Hao Gongming directly appeared in the cave.
She had discovered "The Great's" cave using a skill she had created after years of unsuccessful attempts by Gray to detect it.
Thankfully, the system seemed to solve everything.
As she arrived, she immediately sensed the colossal head in the sky, so immense that a galaxy appeared minuscule before it.
Numerous smaller skulls floated in the air, some of them tiny. Yet even the smallest ones were larger than galaxies.
Furthermore, the cave world was the most massive she had ever seen.
"It should contain a vast amount of spatial essence," she thought.
Without any hesitation, she unleashed relentless slashes with her sword, which she named "Brightness," striking millions of times in a single second.
She held nothing back. After a few moments, she stopped and observed that the giant head remained unmoved. However, many of the smaller skulls had vanished.
"It's likely healing itself after each cut, but the tiny ones can't regenerate so many times. I have to keep cutting!" she determined.
Just then, the giant opened its eyes and fixed its gaze upon her. It emitted a beam of red light.
Hao Gongming paid no heed to evading, as her perfect shield materialized and completely blocked the attack. Nevertheless, everything around her was destroyed.
She wielded her sword, continuing to slash countless times.
Occasionally, the giant skull attempted to attack, but it proved powerless to break through her impenetrable defenses.
After approximately an hour of relentless assault, the giant skull began displaying signs of wear and tear, struggling to repair itself as swiftly as before.
Meanwhile, all the smaller skulls had been completely eradicated.
Suddenly, the giant skull vanished into thin air.
Hao Gongming scoffed, saying, "You think you can escape? Only in your dreams."
She promptly opened a portal, tracking the exact world to which the skull had fled.
Engaging in this cat-and-mouse game several times, the skull's eyes gleamed with an exceedingly bright light.
Hao Gongming smirked, realizing that it was preparing to unleash its trump card.
With her skill, nothing below the 8th step could harm her.
The intensity of the red light emitted by the skull increased, causing her surrounding space to disappear.
From her perspective, the world turned dark, and she was unable to see anything. However, she quickly deduced that the skull had not attacked her directly but rather the space around her.
"It's clever," she remarked.
"Its trump card is a spell that locks space. Fortunately, space happens to be my specialty."
she opened a portal directly to the Hao Harem Sect, swiftly leaping into it and beholding the familiar surroundings.
Without hesitation, she created another portal leading back to the skull's location.
However, an unexpected problem arose. Upon entering the portal, she found nothing there.
"It ran away! Too bad for it, I have the system," she mused.
Acting swiftly, she immediately devised a new skill: "The host can locate any 7th step creature she has encountered and fought for over an hour.
Activating this skill, she swiftly traced the skull's whereabouts. Opening another portal, she leaped in, prepared for the next encounter.
The skull resided in the depths of the soil, recovering in a pool brimming with various essences.
The surroundings were rich with source power, and precious materials adorned the area.
If "The Great" continued its recovery in this place, it might regain its peak strength after a million years.
However, its fortune took a turn when Hao Gongming's portal materialized, and she emerged from it.
"What? So many different essences and an abundance of source power! With these, I can greatly enhance my world!" Hao Gongming considered "The Great" to be already dead.
But "The Great's" eyes gleamed once again. It seemed that it was about to unleash its attack.
"Shut up and die already!" Hao Gongming shouted, teleporting directly inside "The Great's" skull.
Inside, she encountered an overwhelming amount of death energy that threatened her very existence. However, her skill was activated and repelled all the death energy.
No matter how much death energy surged forth, it couldn't budge her an inch.
"It's trying to expel me from its body, but with this shield, it can't move me at all!" Hao Gongming declared.
She then drew out Brightness and started slashing millions of times per second, taking care not to destroy the surrounding essences.
"Wait, if it dies here, many of these essences will be corrupted by death energy. Let's move away!" Hao Gongming smiled, formulating a new skill: "The host can transport any 7th step creature, whose skull the host is in and has fought for at least 1 hour, to any place the host has seen "
She always aimed to limit the reach of her skills to minimize their cost.
The broader the range of the skills, the higher the cost.
Activating this skill, she promptly moved "The Great" to the world where the "Lord of Bones" resided.
The "Lord of Bones" resembled a bone-made dragon, albeit surprisingly small, spanning the size of a planet.
In comparison to "The Great," it was like an atom!
Despite their discrepant sizes, they were of the same rank. Thus, when the "Lord of Bones" noticed its territory being encroached upon by another being of equal standing, it launched an attack.
The dragon opened its mouth and shot countless needle-like bones, poised to strike.
When the bones collided with "The Great," a chunk of its skull finally cracked completely, turning to powder.
"It's finally dying! Yay!" Hao Gongming exclaimed, surprised by its immense vitality.
She had relentlessly attacked it for over an hour with a rank 10 sword capable of cutting through anything. "The Great" couldn't resist being cut, but it managed to heal every single wound for more than an hour.
The "Lord of Bones" didn't cease its assault and drew near, delivering a powerful slap with its tail.
Another massive portion of "The Great" crumbled to powder. Seemingly angered, "The Great" directed its gaze at the tiny dragon, and its eyes emitted a red light.
All the space surrounding the Lord of Bones vanished, and it was sealed within.
However, the Lord of Bones immediately expanded its body and pushed the space.
Its body possessed incredible strength, overpowering the resistance of space. As it expanded, the space expanded along with its body.
After a while, the removed space was recreated, adhering to the laws of the soil universe.
Hao Gongming couldn't have accomplished this feat herself since she wasn't a 7th rank being.
"Space is fascinating. What just happened is a fundamental law of space that states: a smaller space can only exist when it is surrounded by a void, and upon contact with a larger space, the smaller space will assimilate into the larger one," Hao Gongming pondered.
"The Great" was employing its red light skill to create separate spaces enveloped by void.
As a result, teleportation became impossible because teleporting necessitated traversing continuous space.
The presence of the void hindered teleportation, trapping most beings lacking proficiency in space skills who couldn't jump through the void.
"These subjects are incredibly intriguing. Thanks to my clones, I have become highly skilled in almost everything! Perhaps I can write books and send my harem to school to learn!" Hao Gongming contemplated.
The dragon, now the size of a galaxy, opened its mouth and launched two bone projectiles towards "The Great's" eyes. "The Great" was engaged in an internal struggle, dividing its focus.
Nonetheless, it swiftly employed the red light once again, eradicating all space in front of the oncoming bones.
It appeared that "The Great" was afraid of being hit in the eyes.
The bone projectiles reached the edge of space but continued pushing forward, drawing closer to "The Great's" eyes.
Sensing the imminent danger, the skull employed a continuous red light, obliterating all space in its path. Regardless of how much the bone bullets pushed, everything before them continued to be erased. With no space to advance into, they remained suspended in mid-air.
The energy contained within the bones was not insignificant, so once "The Great" ceased using the red light, they would be able to move forward again.
However, at that moment, the skull turned.
The two bone bullets struck the back of its skull, reducing a massive chunk of it to powder once more.
"It's afraid of being hit in the eyes, so I should go and see what's there!" Hao Gongming grinned mischievously.
She opened a portal to the eyes, but the nearest place she could reach was around the forehead. "It's protecting its eyes with void! There is no space around its eyes, so I can't reach them at all. Even if I open a portal, I can't enter because there is no space in the eye area. One cannot traverse through the void; at most, it's possible to jump through it. Void is pure nothingness, different from space. If that's the case, let's create a skill!"
Skill: Eye Grabber - The host will obtain the eyes of an opponent who has been struck by the host's sword over one trillion times and engaged in combat with the host for at least one hour. The opponent must be a rank 7 being and be fighting another rank 7 being at the time of activating this skill, and the eyes will be stored in a space exclusive to the host.
Hao Gongming smiled and activated the skill.
Immediately, both of "The Great's" red-shining eyes vanished.
Subsequently, the entire skull crumbled to dust and disappeared as if it had never existed.
"Finally, 'The Great' is dead. One down," she exclaimed, beaming brightly.
Then, Hao Gongming turned her gaze toward the Lord of Bones, wearing a smile.